"To Shie, the gift of the village, she is the light that will keep us all going in these dark times and will lead this village into a new age of peace"

He downed his drink in one, refused any others that the other villagers wanted to buy him and then headed back upstairs to his work. He liked the village and wanted to help them as much as possible, it reminded him a lot of his old village and the problems they had faced, he didn't want that to happen here and he would give his life to make sure nothing happened to it.

She watched him go, blushing at his words, and accepted just one more drink. Then just one more...

Hours later, when the bar has closed for the evening and she'd managed to clean, the one had turned into about half a bottle. Her fellow servers had stepped up well as she tried to drink only water. The only thing she could think of to be thankful for was that no demons had interrupted them that evening.

Each step was a new challenge and when she reached the top, she sat there saying a brief prayer. The breeze from the still unfinished wall kept her overheated skin cool. "Tsai," she murmured, "Tsai, I'm a bit...giggly."

Lièrén watched Shie coming up the steps, finding it a little bit of a struggle because she had obviously had more than one cup of sake, he smiled and stopped his work for the evening, walking over to Shie and picking her up in his arms, carrying her to her room and placing her gently onto her bed.

"You did well Shie, now it is time for you to rest, sleep well"

Lièrén then exited her room and closed the door behind him, then he walked downstairs and took the sword out from behind the counter again to have a better look at it. It was a plain enough sword, with a strong and sharp blade, well balanced, then he noticed a little symbol near the pommel, it was small and Lièrén was only just able to make it out, it looked to be a rune of some kind, a magical symbol, which raised more questions but it also answered how it was able to kill demons, it was enchanted with a spell which killed demons.

"What have I walked into here?"

He asked himself and then placed the sword back and headed up to his room, where he sat on his bed topless, and for the first time in many years, he prayed to The Gods for the strength to protect the village from harm.

The next morning, Shie opened her eyes to find the floor racing toward her face. Her head spun as her hands caught her body, balancing only an inch or so above the wood that threatened to smash her face. The blankets were tightly wound about her knees and ankles from her obviously fitful sleep.

"Oh," she sighed out, rolling onto her back. "How did I get in here?" Kicking her way free, she stood and ran a hand over her aching head. "Sake..."

Lièrén awoke to a dull thud a few doors away and he knew that Shie had woken up. He rose and got dressed, then he wondered what he should do today, he could either walk around the village for a little while and get to know the area more, or he could stay inside and finishing work on the section of the wall he was up too, it was coming along nicely and he didn't want to leave it.

He walked out of his room and stretched, he had changed his usual full sleeve robe for a short sleeved one that left his arms bare up to his shoulders, much better suited for him to work in and fight in if any demons attacked, he wasn't sure if they came down during the day. He went back into his room and grabbed his sword and walked down and out of the inn and to the field he had been to with Shie when they had burnt the demon, he unsheafed his sword and began practicing with it, sparring with invisible enemies to keep himself well practiced, it would be a disaster if he were to lose his touch with a sword.

She climbed down the stairs, hand against the wall as she made her way outside once again, the buckets in hand. Each breath of the morning air helped wake her up a bit, clearing her head until she felt back to her normal self. With a sigh, she passed through tall grass. The smell of the wet banks and marshy life put her at home.

Movement to the left caught her attention. She turned, seeing the swing of a sword before the man wielding it. Putting the buckets down, knowing she was mostly hidden by the grass, she watched.

Lièrén entered the state of mind that he always entered when sparring, whether on his own or with other people, and the movements of the sword became more fuild and smooth, he moved the weapon in his hands as if it were made of nothing but air, he picked up speed as he moved through the motions, becoming so fast that soon the blade was nothing but a blur until he brought it down in a swift arc, taking all of the momentum out of the weapon. He was sweating and panting from his sparring but he felt good for it, like he did everytime he sparred, it was like he was fighting and cutting down his own personal demons, clearing his soul of the problems of his previous life.

He took a couple of minutes break from sword training, placing the weapon back into its sheaf he set to work on some hand to hand combat that he had picked up on his travels, moving through various punches and blocks, working on them until he could move through them without a hitch, when he was completely satisfied, he stopped and picked up his sword and walked back to the inn.

He placed the sword back next to his pack and then he went into the hallway again and began work on the wall, he felt calmer and ready for anything the day brought at him.

Without moving until he died, she finally fetched the water and brought it inside with a rush. Filling the basin, she scrubbed the remnants of the drink from her eyes and face. After a quick consultation with her father, she found herself searching out Lièrén.

"Excuse me? I am in need of your assistance. I have to go to the next town over for supplies..."

"It's about five miles to the south. Hirana, it's called." She rummaged about in her closet, trying to find her traveling robes. "Ah!" She tied them around herself, feeling the familiar weight. "Not very many people. Mostly farms. They provide us with pork and beef and occasionally some richer sake."

Moving down the stairs, she stretched her arms out and grabbed the walking stick by the door. "It's through the mountains, though. And the caves where there are rumored beasts."

"It is a good thing I always carry my sword then, just incase any of them decide to attack us, I would ask if we could take the sword behind the counter with us, but I think it would be a better idea to leave it here incase of a demon attack and your father needs to use it"

Lièrén opened the inn door for Shie

"Ladies first, lead the way, it is a town I am not familiar with"

He waited for Shie to take the lead and he fell into step beside her, walking through and then out of the village with her, he felt slightly uneasy about this trip, but then he shook the feeling off and just enjoyed the nice weather and the company of Shie.

"Maybe while we are in town, I could find the blacksmiths and buy some swords for the village, what do you think? I have enough for several of the weapons and from them I can use them as a template for making more"

Shie took the lead, making her way through the dirt path that served as a walkway. The grass on either side grew over the boundaries, tickling at her sandal-covered feet. The parasol at her side hit against her leg as the sun remained partially hidden behind the clouds. The breeze, gentler than the other days, played with the ends of her hair.

"We could stop by. Of course, I don't think the village would want to accept such a show of generosity. They're very prideful people, after all. Just like me." She gave him a smile and began to trek up the rocky path.

"It isn't really a show of generosity, I want to make the village safe and like I said yesterday, I will do whatever it takes to make it safe, which reminds me, I took another look at that sword behind the counter, the one your friend used in his last fight, there is a little mark near the pommel, it looks like some sort of rune, were you aware that such a mark existed on the sword?"

He hoped she did, otherwise it meant that some other force was at work here and that the village could potentially be in more danger than he first thought

"Is there anyone you know who could have worked a mark into the sword, because it looks to me like the mark alone has given the sword the power to kill a demon, if we can replicate this mark for other swords, then we can protect the entire village without even trying"

"Mark?" She raised a brow and glanced over. "There's his name. It's inscribed on the hilt, but beyond that, it's just a sword." Another set of rocks loomed before them. She hopped from rock to rock, her years of experience shining through as she did something so tomboy-ish.

"Tsai wasn't from the village. He came from the East." Another hop. "It could just say something in his own language." A jump. "Something unimportant." She reached the top of the first crag and stood there, gazing down at him. "Well? Hurry up."

She nodded to him and began the spiraling path up the mountain. Her ears popped once, then twice as she swallowed to try and alleviate the feeling. "I'm not sure," she said to him, "what I can do about the mark if it is there. We can try to find someone who knows what it is, I suppose. Or what language."

A set of rocks began to fall in front of her. She moved out of the way, allowing them to pass. She didn't want to crash over the side. "Could you redraw it?"

She glanced between his arm and the sheer face of the cliff and chose to grab him any time she felt like falling. "It was much the same," she said, picking through the rocks carefully. "We harvest a lot of grain. Not much luck with cattle and animals, though. They always wander off."

Shie reached the top of the first rocky hill and peered at the horizon, seeing how the landscape curved down from where she stood. "We had a lot of children always playing. A lot of happy parents. Our bar was never as full as it is now... But now that the children are gone and the parents are depressed..."

She began to walk down slowly, skidding on the heels of her shoes alternately.

"It sounds like it was a nice village once, what do you think happened to the children once they were taken?"

He knew that they would have been either killed or, if it were possible, turned into other demons. He had seen pretty much everything in his travels, but nothing like this had ever crossed his path before.

He slid down the rock face slowly after Shie, he didn't want to slip and fall into her, it would be the death of them both.

"Back in my village, it was always busy, it was almost a town, a lot of guards around because of the high crime rate, kids always causing trouble, the adults always on the move to get things done, it was hectic, but it was nice at the same time, even with my family being poor, I miss them, it's nice when I see you with your father, it reminds me of the times when I was with my son"

He felt a little sad inside but he knew it had been for the best when he had left.

"I would imagine that they were..." She gazed into the sky, unable to say it. She came to the bottom of the second mountain and turned to him. Her hands rested on her hips, the parasol resting on the ground for a moment as she tilted her head to the side.

"The town sounds like a place I'd never want to visit. Much too busy." Rising again, she reattached the parasol and turned to him. "You have a son?"

"I used to have a son, when I left the village I had to leave everything behind, including him, he probably won't recognize me now, I will just be a distant memory in his young mind, he will have moved on by now, it was a long time ago"

He sighed, he had lost everything when he had left, but it had definitely been for the best at the time, now he wasn't so sure, but then again, maybe he was supposed to leave so that one day he could walk into the little village of Onawa and decide to help them with a demon problem.

"I hope you don't mind me asking, but it seems a little strange that there is only you and your father, what happened to your mother? Do you have any brothers or sisters at all?"

The thought of a boy all alone without a father made her heart hurt. She rubbed her chest before shaking her head. "My mother died while having me. That's why I'm not so...lady-like, so to speak. I have no siblings. It's always been me, my father, and Tsai." She used the tip of the parasol to dislodge a few rocks from their path.

"I'm very sorry about your son. Perhaps, one day, you'll be able to see him again."

"Maybe one day I will return to my village and see him again, maybe he will remember me as well, I hope he will, it would be nice"

He walked with Shie in silence for part of the journey, he was deep in thought and his head was starting to hurt a little bit from the effort of thinking about so much and trying to accept something impossible like demons.

"I am sorry about all of the questions I have been asking about the demons, they are new to me, I like to know what my enemy is like, it is a strange way of thinking I know, but over the past few years I have learnt to analyse a situation before rushing into it head on like I used too"

Shie shook her head. "Don't fret over the questions. They're good to have and I wish I could answer them all."

Turning to face the sun, she sighed and removed the parasol, opening it with an easy movement. The shade kept the skin on her face from burning. "Now, at the end of this mountain, we turn toward the east. Then we should see it." She gazed over the side and pointed toward the curling smoke.